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Dichio, Boyens net Toronto FC a win

Jun 2, 2007 - 11:24 PM TORONTO (Ticker) -- Danny Dichio and Andrew Boyens tallied first-half goals to lead Toronto FC to a 2-1 victory Saturday over the Colorado Rapids in front of 20,195.

Dichio, who has a team-high three goals - including the first in Toronto FC's brief history - put the expansion franchise on the board quickly as his short-range tally beat Colorado goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul in the ninth minute.

"I'm poppin up with goals but the most important thing today was the 3 points," Dichio said. "We had a good result last week and we wanted to build on it. We had some International absences today but I felt we stuck together and played well."

Coupled with Boyens' goal off a corner kick in the 28th minute, that enabled Toronto FC (3-5-1, 10 points) to leapfrog out of the cellar in the Eastern Conference.

Boyens, a lanky 6-4 defender from New Zealand, camped out in front of the net and headed in Jim Brennan's corner kick to give Toronto FC a 2-0 lead.

Three minutes later, Rapids midfielder Herculez Gomez continued his strong play with his fourth tally of the season. Gomez has scored in each of his team's last three games, including the lone goal in a win May 26 over his former club, the Los Angeles Galaxy.

"I don't really care about that," Gomez said about his streak. "I would have rather gotten the win. I didn't know about it to tell you the truth. It would have been nice to get out of here with a good result."

Although his team received the good result, Toronto FC coach Mo Johnston was not pleased.

"I was concerned and disappointed when we gave up the goal," he said. "We've got all our guys moving up the field and giving the ball away. It was a very disappointing goal to lose. In the first half we created a lot of chances and should have scored more."

Toronto FC's Kevin Goldthwaite was given a red card in the 80th minute for abusive language, thereby giving Colorado the man advantage for approximately the final 10 minutes and stoppage time.

"I was arguing with (Colorado's Nicolas) Hernandez and we were going back and forth. I said something to him inappropriate and he went back at me in Spanish. Clearly the ref only understood what I said because I was sent off. It's pretty ridiculous."

The loss proved costly for Colorado (4-3-3, 15 points), which failed to gain ground on idle Western Conference leader FC Dallas (5-4-1, 16 points).

Coundoul made several key saves for Colorado. By comparison, Toronto FC's backup goalkeeper Srdjan Djekanovic wasn't tested much and recorded his first MLS career win.

"It was great. The guys played excellent for me," Djekanovic said. "It was a great way to start it off. It was very nice."

The Rapids, who were outshot by Toronto FC, 9-2, in the first half, dictated much of the play in the second half.